We Don't Always Hate Each Other
by jack2724
Summary: Pepper learns that Tony and Steve can get along- though only when they're alone together in the middle of the night...


Pepper had lost count how many times this month _alone_ that this had happened. She wakes up in the middle of the night to see the other side of the bed empty- Tony gone and nowhere to be found. At first she assumed he was sneaking to his lab, but no such luck. She asks JARVIS every time and he tells her Tony isn't in the lab nor is he drinking in the dark; instead he is apparently sitting quietly in the lounge on the Avengers' communal floor, two floors below Pepper and Tony's penthouse. Like every other night, Pepper just roles over and goes back to sleep knowing that Tony is safe (relatively speaking) and will be in bed when she wakes up in the morning.

Like clockwork, the next morning she wakes up to JARVIS telling her the weather and a dead to the world asleep Anthony Stark next to her, his arms wrapped around her. As she shifts, he grunts a little at being disturbed.

"Stay here," he grumbles into the pillow, and Pepper can barely understand the words.

"Some people actually have to work." She says sitting up and running her hand through his hair.

"Some people, but today, not you or me. We are going to do nothing today, we'll have a lazy in bed day just us, it's even raining outside, right JARVIS?"

Smiling, Pepper reluctantly gets out of bed and starts towards their monstrous walk in closet. As she walks out carrying a dress and laying it on their bed, Tony sits up and smiles at her.

"You seem to be sleeping pretty regularly all of a sudden." She says, hoping he'll mention his sneaking out in the middle of the night.

"Trying for you, Pep." Tony says with a genuine smile around a yawn.

Pepper stops at that, looking at him carefully, "I know and I'm proud of you, but I miss you, sometimes when I wake up in the middle of the night. JARVIS tells me you're alright, but still…"

"Sometimes I just need to go to calm my mind, don't worry, Pep." He smiles from the bed.

"I always worry, 'cause someone has to for you." She tries to laugh, but can't really pull it off. "I'm here if you need to talk about anything."

"I know. I love that about you, and so much more." Tony smiles, "Now go get ready and I'm going back to sleep."

Laughing a little, "alright, sweet dreams Tony. Love you." Pepper goes into the bathroom to get ready and later leaves the penthouse silently for work.

-/-/-

Later that night, after Pepper and Tony had dinner with the team (and after Tony and Steve fought over at least a dozen stupid things) and after they all watched a couple of movies together; Pepper woke up again in the middle of the night alone in bed.

_'Alright, I'm sick of this, what is he doing!?' _Pepper thought to herself as she asked JARVIS where Tony was.

She makes her way quietly down the elevator to the communal lounge, where JARVIS said Tony was located currently.

She quietly stands in the doorway behind the couch where Tony and Steve were sitting in companionable silence? _'Since when are they not enemies, they were ready to kill each other not six hours ago!'_ Pepper thinks to herself as she watches them.

Tony is half lying across the couch with his toes tucked under Steve's legs. While Steve's legs are stretched across with his feet propped up on the coffee table. Tony is silently playing with a Rubik's cube and Steve is slowly sipping a cup of hot tea. Pepper notices, on the side table behind Tony's head, a second cup of tea, in an Iron Man mug of course; that makes her smile a little.

She stands there for a few minutes, neither man says a word, but what gets her is that there is no tension in the air- there's always tension between the two when they're within 10 meters of each other!

Tony finally puts down the Rubik's cube (after solving it at least eight times) and drinks all his tea in one gulp. He sighs once to himself and stands up slowly, cracking his back. Steve looks up at him as Tony takes both his and Steve's mugs into the kitchen. Pepper quickly ducks behind the doorway so that Tony won't notice her.

She glances one last time back into the lounge and catches Tony pat Steve on the shoulder once before heading to the stairs that lead up to the penthouse.

Pepper is about to rush and try to beat Tony back to their room when she hears Steve say loud enough for her to hear from the lounge. "He can be nice company, when he needs a quiet moment to think. I like when he needs it. I'm doing the same thing, and it's nice not being alone when you know that thinking will be bad for you. Thinking hurts, but it hurt less when you know you're not alone."

_'Duh! Super serum, of course he knew you were here!' _She thinks before she starts to listen to what he's saying. She stops for a moment and before she leaves for the elevator she says quietly (though she knows he can hear her) "You aren't alone Steve, neither is he. We'll always be here for each other."

-/-/-

She makes her way out of the elevator on the penthouse floor, to her and Tony's bedroom as quietly as she can. When she gets to their room, she sees Tony sitting at the foot of the bed, bare feet on the carpet, red silk pajama pants and white t-shirt. His head is hung down, his elbows resting on his knees and his hands clasped together. He looks up as Pepper walks in, but doesn't say anything.

Pepper sits next to him and rests her head on his shoulder. Deciding to bite the bullet and start this conversation, she says lowly, "I worry about you."

"I know." He says in an equally low almost whisper, still not moving from his position.

"I wanted to check up on you."

"Yeah." He says slowly, pausing to pick his words carefully, "I couldn't sleep; too much going on up here and not what I wanted going on." He says, tapping his finger against his temple. "I needed to think in peace."

"But not alone." Pepper states, it's not a question but he still answers.

"Alone, in the context of silence; with no expectations or explanations for what I'm thinking about, but at the same time I needed something to physically ground me to here and now."

He looks up at her carefully, hoping she understands.

"Steve." Pepper says, finally understanding what Steve had meant and what Tony is now saying.

"What better metaphorical ball and chain to now then the not-dead original Captain America." Tony's lips twitch upwards slightly at that comment.

"Are you saying something _nice _about Steve?" Pepper says with a hint of a smile in her voice.

"The frozen old bitty? No. But… you know what I mean." He says shaking his head slightly.

Pepper nods slightly against Tony's shoulder, "Yeah, I think I do and I'm glad you guys can be that for each other." Pepper gets up and crawls under the covers in bed. Tony watches her, his body language finally relaxed.

"Ready to get some sleep?" She smiles and he returns it. "Yeah." He says as he crawls back under the covers with her.

-/-/-

Pepper still finds Steve and Tony yelling at each other and about ready to kill each other. The entire team still sometimes wants to kill them. She still ignores Tony as he rants about "Stupid Capsicle" and she doubts any of this will ever change. And Pepper still wakes up in the middle of the night to an empty bed, asks JARVIS and is told Tony is in the lounge, but she knows that as much as Tony and Steve hate each other; they don't _always_ hate each other, sometimes they're there for each other to keep each other from thinking too much alone in the quiet of the night. And that makes her smile, she'll worry about Tony, but he'll be ok because he's never alone.


End file.
